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Yoga Poses for Fibromyalgia and Lyme Disease

Doing yoga for painful debilitating diseases like Lyme Disease and Fibromyalgia is all about surrender. You are not trying to push yourself to any limits, you’re allowing your body to do what it needs to do. The process of healing through yoga when your muscles become tight from lack of use takes time. This is often why a restorative yoga style is recommended.

Some people will even just do yoga while they’re in their bed because their disease doesn’t allow them to get out of bed. In situations where a person can’t get out of bed, yoga poses while you’re lying is ideal. You get the mental stimulation you need, focusing more on breathing while lying in poses that indicate surrender. Learning to meditate as you lie in bed will help you with pain management and can make you feel euphoric. The following poses can be done on the floor or in your bed.

Poses for Lyme Disease

Reclining Mountain Pose
As you relax in reclining mountain pose, you can expect to gain awareness of stiff joints. You get a nice gentle stretch throughout your whole body.
Lie down on your back with knees slightly bent, palm facing towards the sky over your head.

Sit on the floor or your bed with your legs out straight in front of you.

Try not to slouch. Feel free to work with this pose daily, starting with just a few seconds as you gain strength in your core.

If you need to, sit against a wall to alleviate any strain.

Put your palms on the floor by your sides.

Flex your feet for a leg stretch.

A study on how yoga helps chronic pain from Fibromyalgia showed positive evidence that it can alleviate pain. Instead of using heavy painkillers, which prevent you from thinking properly, yoga was shown to keep the body limber, reducing muscular pain. Fibromyalgia is painful, uncomfortable, and stressful. Fatigue may also be a common symptom. With all this in mind, it’s challenging to exercise. The will to attempt anything to make you feel better may have long ago disappeared. Constant discomfort makes it a challenge to believe that anything will make you feel better. As there is no suggested cure in the medical industry, those with Fibromyalgia may end up on strong painkillers. This is a cycle that can lead to blurred thinking and potentially addiction.

While the traditional yoga class wouldn’t be recommended for someone suffering from Fibromyalgia, there is proof that restorative yoga can help with the disease. Everybody is different and yoga can cater to any person with any degree of pain and limitations.

Poses for Fibromyalgia

Child’s Pose
Child’s pose is a great way to quiet the mind which should help manage pain. The pose is deeply surrendering and prevents outside stimulus from getting in the way from your focus. You can do this pose in bed with pillow assists in the beginning. As you begin to stretch the muscles further every day, you can then remove the pillows, get on the mat, start reaching arms forward for shoulder stretches. This super gentle inversion can be done for as long as you want. In fact, the philosophy of this pose in Kundalini yoga states that 11 minutes in this pose equates to 4 hours of sleep. You gently stretch out your hips and back muscles. It also reduces swelling in the lower body.

In child’s pose, you start with your knees tucked behind you.

Bring the top of your body to the floor as your belly rests on your thighs.

Rest arms beside you, your hands can even touch your feet.

SavasanaThis pose can be done comfortably in your bed or on a mat. It’s said to be one of the most challenging poses to master in yoga. It’s about relaxing completely and shutting the mind off completely. If you’re willing to settle the mind and body, you’ll find this pose shuts out noise from inside and outside of yourself. You can deeply relax all your muscles and organs.

Part of the benefits of yoga for these diseases is more than just physical healing. It can also help someone who suffers to feel happier and more hopeful. As you learn to quiet the mind, you become more relaxed and at ease. When you ease tension in the mind, it can help center you. Taking the suggested poses slowly and with intention will benefit you more daily than pushing yourself. Studies that have shown yoga to be an effective healing tool for Fibromyalgia and Lyme Disease state that its daily practice is most effective. Slowly and steadily building up elasticity in muscles will prevent further pain from injury and is reported to be the best method of rehabilitation with yoga.